Wyoming is one of those states that didn't get as crazy during the real estate run-up and thus aren't feeling the full weight of the downturn. Last Friday I did a daylong workshop for the Wyoming Broadcasters. They returned the favor nicely by sharing some of the better local direct ideas I've heard recently. Here are a couple.

While business and employment are actually good, the merchant hears CNN, CNBC, the newspaper and all the bad news and consider they should be afraid of future. Such a client told an AE that they wanted to hold off "to see what the economy will do."  Her response:

YOU ARE THE ECONOMY. RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW. Every action every business takes is recorded somewhere, from a small furniture store in Cheyenne, Wyoming to a Lexus dealer in Los Angeles. Have you ever watched a brick wall being built? Every small brick being laid one at a time, seems insignificant. However when you look a few days later - there's an entire wall where none existed before. The wall came from small actions. That's what this is about.

Another lesson from Wyoming. The local Macy's is making it's day numbers every day - beating last year's numbers. However Macy's in large markets are suffering from slower sales. Based on that, the national management dictates expense cuts and cutbacks. So the store that is doing well must cut back advertising or salespeople and in time starts to suffer the effect of the larger stores. You've probably seen it with auto dealers, fast food and large chains stores of every kind. Last Sunday on NBC Dateline, Warren Buffet alluded to a Self-Fulfilling Cycle of Negativism. 

Solutions

1. When I was GM-ing my boss would say "We need to trim $xx dollars" or "we need to cut overhead XX percent." Usually I had some latitude where the cuts would be made - a matter of shifting dollars. The real commitment was to the total - not a specific micro-expense. When facing a client cutback attempt to find out if that's the situation or if there is a mandate for a specific cut.
2. That's where a good business manager is a strong ally. Sometimes we took our business manager (a CPA) to meet with their counterpart at a client. The two of them talked language of Accounting.  On that neutral ground they were able to find solutions we would have never thought of.

Selling in a Tough Economy FOR MANAGERS AND SENIOR SELLERS.

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